For hard-to-reach tumors at the back of the throat, robots can assist surgeons to remove cancers in a less invasive way. But this high-tech approach has a drawback: the surgeon’s inability to assess through touch whether they’ve been able to get all of the cancer out.

January 2019

A research study co-authored by UC Davis Health physicians Jonathan Ducore and Adam Giermasz, co-directors of the UC Davis Health Hemophilia Treatment Center has received a national “Top Ten” award by the Clinical Research Forum.

When chemotherapy kills cancer cells, the debris of dead and dying cells can lead to inflammation and the surge of more cancerous cells. Newly published research on ovarian cancer, involving an anti-inflammatory compound developed in the Bruce Hammock lab at UC Davis, and tested at Harvard Medical School on mouse models, indicates that the compound not only suppresses inflammation but reduces cancer growth, acting as a “surge protector.”

New year, new diet, right? But which foods should we be eating in 2019 to optimize our health? We asked UC Davis Health experts which foods they recommend to help us all glean health benefits in the new year.

November 2018

UC Davis scientist Julie Sutcliffe and surgical oncologist Richard Bold have been awarded a $1 million “New Therapies Challenge” grant from the Pancreatic Cancer Collective in an effort to improve survival for people with the disease.

Wishes do come true. If in doubt, ask pediatric cancer patient Matthew Harding. The 15-year-old boy from Elverta received the surprise of a lifetime on Wednesday when he became the youngest soccer player in Sacramento Republic FC history to be signed to a contract, as part of his Make-a-Wish wish.

UC Davis Health tobacco researcher and physician Elisa Tong is leading a statewide effort to help safety-net health care systems guide their patients who use tobacco products to resources to help them quit.

UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center has received a $6.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities for a 5-year study to tease out why some ethnic and racial minority groups fare worse than whites when they get cancer and to find more precise treatments to improve their chances of survival.

August 2018

A comprehensive analysis of eight clinical trials and four cohort studies on cervical cancer screening by researchers from UC Davis and Kaiser Permanente Northwest has found that while Pap smears are still highly effective for detecting pre-cancerous cells and cancer, testing for the virus that causes these cancers also is an excellent screening tool.

Better treatments and improved screening programs that detect cancer at earlier stages led to an overall 12 percent improvement in cancer survival in California, according to a new report from the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement.

Researchers at UC Davis, Genentech and Foundation Medicine are the first to show that a blood-based test to assess tumor mutational burden (TMB) accurately identifies non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who could benefit from immunotherapies called checkpoint inhibitors. The blood test offers a much less invasive and more repeatable alternative to tissue testing. The study was published online today in Nature Medicine.

July 2018

Humanpapilloma virus (HPV) is now the leading cause of certain types of throat cancer. Dr. Michael Moore, director of head and neck surgery at UC Davis and an HPV-related cancer expert, answers some tough questions about the trend and what can be done about it.

Steven Berkstresser has chewed tobacco for most of the past 40 years, and he’s always wanted to kick the habit. But it was a cancer diagnosis that prompted him to join a UC Davis program to help him quit.

Renowned surgeon, scientist and educator Griffith R. Harsh IV has been selected as chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery and the Julian R. Youmans Chair in Neurological Surgery at UC Davis Health. He begins his new position July 1.

The UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, in collaboration with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, presents “Live Your Best Life: Advances in Blood Cancer Treatment and Patient Support” on Saturday, June 9. The day-long conference will be held at the Medical Education Building, 4610 X Street, Sacramento, from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. (registration begins at 9:30 a.m.). The event is free to the public and includes complimentary breakfast and lunch.

An exhaustive review by UC Davis researchers of more than 60 studies is the basis for new national recommendations about prostate cancer screening. The review and the findings were published May 8 in JAMA.

April 2018

Primo Nery Lara, Jr. has been named director of the National Cancer Institute-designated UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, leading a team of more than 300 scientists with an estimated $90 million in annual research funding and a clinical enterprise that serves more than 10,000 adult and pediatric patients throughout the region every year.